The Crown Heights Community Mediation Center is beginning to highlight some phenomenal members of this community.Dorothy Jean Bembry-Guet is an active Crown Heights community member, a Leadership Training Institute participant, a union 1199 delegate, a tenant organizer, a mother, a grandmother, and a New York University graduate. She moved to Brooklyn from Georgia and has lived in the community since 1968. She has a passion for working with people and improving the community. Our staff member Rebecca Steinfeld had a chance to sit down and interview Dorothy.

Dorothy spoke about everything from the richly diverse Crown Heights community that is not reflected in the media, to the importance of not over-committing yourself, to her involvement in the Brooklyn Tenants Union lobbying in Albany for more tenant friendly laws. While talking about her work lobbying for change, Dorothy spoke about the importance of teaching people that they do have the power improve their lives. She said, “You train members of the community that they have this power. You empower people. It’s so amazing what you can do. People just don’t know the power that they have. It doesn’t have to be violent. It doesn’t have to be nasty. But the voter, the citizen, they really are in control if they just utilize their power.”

You can listen to more of Dorothy’s inspiring words here in an edited version of her interview: